Yeah... I don't think the stock shaft would work well if I tried to run this. My driveshaft guy told me last night he just used his last XJ shaft so I have to supply one for him to cut down... so I will be ordering a tattons or adams driveshaft. It has more travel in the slip spline and beefier, and NEW. It's twice as much but whatever.

Between the sye, resulting longer shaft, and the 20 degree pinion angle the rear shaft should be fine.

I am trying to pull of a rear gas tank skid before rausch but with only a month to go, I gota work work work to get this stuff done... Not a ton but a good bit. I finally got my 220 wired up yesterday morning and this is the work I got done in the afternoon.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER

It's lookin clean though So that crossmember is tied into the transmission? Are you using any sort of mount...rubber/poly/etc? Do you have an auto or manual?

Trying. Gota balance work with more work (on the jeep). Thanks man. The crossmember is mounted to the plate that the bolted to the plate that bolted the the old skid. The bushings are located on the ends of the crossmember, they are basically motor mount bushings. From the ruff stuff xmember kit. So everything is solid from the engine/trans/tcase through the x member til the ends where it bolts to the frame brackets, where is where the bushings are located.

I have an auto, 32rh.

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Originally Posted by my98tj

looking good man!

Thank you. I will be glad when it all comes together. This is my first big "functional" major mod that doesn't really do anything to looks like lift or tires. Although you don't see much, the functionality of the new gearing, LSD, stronger axles, new brakes, tummy tuck, clearance at the driveshaft, and the smoothness of the sye/cv setup will make my rig feel like a completely different beast. I can't wait to take it to the next step with the front axle build, hopefully next spring/summer.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER

Trying. Gota balance work with more work (on the jeep). Thanks man. The crossmember is mounted to the plate that the bolted to the plate that bolted the the old skid. The bushings are located on the ends of the crossmember, they are basically motor mount bushings. From the ruff stuff xmember kit. So everything is solid from the engine/trans/tcase through the x member til the ends where it bolts to the frame brackets, where is where the bushings are located.

I have an auto, 32rh.

Thank you. I will be glad when it all comes together. This is my first big "functional" major mod that doesn't really do anything to looks like lift or tires. Although you don't see much, the functionality of the new gearing, LSD, stronger axles, new brakes, tummy tuck, clearance at the driveshaft, and the smoothness of the sye/cv setup will make my rig feel like a completely different beast. I can't wait to take it to the next step with the front axle build, hopefully next spring/summer.

I am gonna have to pull my skid off to see what can be done for mine. I think yours looks a little different, but not much. Definitely can be done

I personally cant stand looking at that shovel under mine...it does a lot for looks for guys that know a little about jeeps lol.

What engine/trans do you have? My friend has the 6 speed and did his, but with a swapped in rubi t case. The mounts are completely different. I found that out after he was going to show me how he did his then looked and said nevermind... haha. Go for it. The x member is a tight fit now, but once it's in there it will be super nice to just drop the skid and wash and work on stuff. My stock skid is so beat to heck it takes forever to get it aligned. It's so bent I can't get it to get to bolt holes on both sides sometimes... I used it's bolts holes to mark the ones on my new skid, but forgot how messed up it was. So I have to notch them into slots instead of holes now a little bit. Not much.

True. Like I love the look of the tuck so much. Like I can't explain. But most people don't even see the shovel.. how I don't know...

I explain what I am doing and I get blank stares, even from people familiar with autos.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER

What engine/trans do you have? My friend has the 6 speed and did his, but with a swapped in rubi t case. The mounts are completely different. I found that out after he was going to show me how he did his then looked and said nevermind... haha. Go for it. The x member is a tight fit now, but once it's in there it will be super nice to just drop the skid and wash and work on stuff. My stock skid is so beat to heck it takes forever to get it aligned. It's so bent I can't get it to get to bolt holes on both sides sometimes... I used it's bolts holes to mark the ones on my new skid, but forgot how messed up it was. So I have to notch them into slots instead of holes now a little bit. Not much.

Mine has the 4.0L and ax15. If a xmember wont work...I may have to do similar to Imped. He was running just a flat skid and a lopro trans mount from UCF, right?

Yep, but he converted to a separate cross member and then to something else savvy setup I think? I don't know I lost track. I am pretty darn sure you can do it with the ax15.. I will do some reading since I have time here at work.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER

Yep, but he converted to a separate cross member and then to something else savvy setup I think? I don't know I lost track. I am pretty darn sure you can do it with the ax15.. I will do some reading since I have time here at work.

Yeah, I never caught up on his build though because around that time all his pictures got deleted/moved from his photobucket and I just basically gave up because I read all I needed and was into some other stuff...

Now I am trying to figure out what length driveshaft I need without actually having the 8.8 in to measure. lol.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER

Worked on the 8.8 skid and cleaning up the skid plate and x member bolts holes with the dremel today. I need a bigger drill bit to open the x member holes up a little bit more. The driver side part of the plate pulled in 1/16 inch or so when I welded and its a semi tight fit and I don't wana re-re-weld that side brackets. My welds are getting better too.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER

Artec truss lcas were nowhere near where they needed to be based on their instructions. I had to figure out where to mount them. Where they were originally the top of the truss was nowhere near flat more like 10 degrees at ride height.

That's long story short. Everything seems good now I cycled suspension etc. gota measure for my driveshaft tomorrow and call the shop about cutting it down. Pick up the xj shaft itself from a friend. Ordering the Rokmen gas tank skid tomorrow. I have a tight fit with the axle and gas tank but with the Rokmen skid I gain an inch of clearance back there. I think I'm getting a little stretch out of this.

I also have a lead on a set of alloy d30 shafts that I'm trying to make a deal on. Might pick up some other parts tomorrow like paint and gear oil and t case fluid and price a front input seal for my t case. And rear output for trans I think. Gona check clearances one more time for sure and then make sure everything is good under full bump and droop (it was tonight) but also flexing each side.

I had heard about shock bracket issues and them hitting in the position artec suggests. So I just put the axle to full droop and tacked them where they just cleared the spring pads. Worked out well.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER

Honestly not all that satisfied with the artec truss. Shock tabs either let the shock bolt up and won't fit flush on the tube or fit flush on the tube and are at the wrong angle for the shock bushing/body to fit inside. I don't think it helps that my zone shocks have a large body set so close to the bushing. looks like I will be grinding the artec brackets down some.

Got my DS measurements. 18.75 ride(roughly), 19 bump, 17.75 droop.

I figure cut the DS to 16.5, so I have travel from 16.5-20.5. Any suggestions throw them out there.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER

If you plan on ordering anything from rokmen, give them a call. Awesome, fast service and a discount. Jeff just shipped me a gas tank skid in under 5 minus for a bargain. That's the kind of company I love to deal with. Waitin on a call back from the machine shop that is going to do my driveshaft, and then going to pick up the driveshaft. Hopefully figure out these shock mounts QUICKLY this afternoon or evening. I have been fighting a lot of rain lately since I am workin in my driveway. So the weather is really dictating what I do.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER

Give us a call and we'll send you out the updated shock brackets. You have the older style ones that we've since revised to make much better. Better clearance for the shock bodies and easier to angle. They also make it easier to bolt the LCAs in.

I can also send you new coil pads but all we did to update them was cut off the back radius in line with the back of the bent tabs.

Sounds great, will be giving you a call.

I do want to mention for all reading that although I may have sounded a bit harsh about the shock brackets not being perfect, the base truss, UCA, track bar and coil pad mounts all went together flawlessly in about an hour, and thats with my going slow and steady with my measurements. Definitely much easier than most any other kits. And it appears Artec has updated shock mounts for me (and future buyers), everything should turn out fine I would definitely purchase the truss/swap kit again, and I am glad to hear they have some updated parts.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER

I'm watching closely, i plan on doing this in the not-too-distant future (that is truss the rear axle and set it up for a four link with artec brackets). Thanks for the pics and product feedback, keep up the good work

Thanks man. Yeah I am gona 4 link this eventually which is another big reason I went w/ artec, perfect platform to run it off of. I will be redoing all the frame brackets at that time as well and figured I already had enough on my plate. I want to to ditch the track bar and get some better clearance on the arms (move the LCAs up) after I do the front axle build. Priorities suck.

Artec and rokmen both got good reviews from me today and posts on the wall of my jeep group (450~ members and growing). Just goes to show that good customer service will drive business and these two companies are definitely doing it right. I plan on leaving reviews and sending pictures of the final products to both companies when it's all done.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER

Thanks man. Yeah I am gona 4 link this eventually which is another big reason I went w/ artec, perfect platform to run it off of. I will be redoing all the frame brackets at that time as well and figured I already had enough on my plate. I want to to ditch the track bar and get some better clearance on the arms (move the LCAs up) after I do the front axle build. Priorities suck.

Artec and rokmen both got good reviews from me today and posts on the wall of my jeep group (450~ members and growing). Just goes to show that good customer service will drive business and these two companies are definitely doing it right. I plan on leaving reviews and sending pictures of the final products to both companies when it's all done.

I noticed your same issues when we used my fox shox and we're test fitting a friend's axle with the artec. The old design wouldn't line up worth a damn. I have however seen the new design and it is a bigger shock tab if I remember correctly.

I noticed your same issues when we used my fox shox and we're test fitting a friend's axle with the artec. The old design wouldn't line up worth a damn. I have however seen the new design and it is a bigger shock tab if I remember correctly.

Sounds good to me. I helped a friend weld his up the other week but I didn't help him install. Apparently he just ground the tabs down to let the body fit.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER

x member is 95% welded, waitin to check front DS clearance at full droop. Rokmen tank skid got here today and I started painting it. Going to weld my frame brackets soon, I had to brush up on my vertical this morning.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER

Frame tabs are welded... I still don't like vertical up but those babies aren't coming off. I shimmed the tabs towards the rear where the frame tapers because my cross member was just slightly too short for the rear tabs at the spot I wanted it. So they got 3 passes 1 root on the tab and the shim and then a tie in pass. I ran 1-2 passes on the others as needed. Ran a thick stitch bead most of the time, a few stringers. If I could get the rig up on a lift and stand to weld it would have been 1000 times easier.

Ripped off the hitch and rear bumper, going to be doing a cool mod I have never seen anyone do before back there, and throw my gas tank skid on soon. Excited because the rokmen gives 1.5" below the skid, has a sump, 1" more clearance behind the diff, and more clearance for the driver side shock as well as just beeing plain beefy. I was looking at the savvy but it wasn't in the budget right now.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER

Did some but ugly repairs to that pass spring perch. A lot of the metal was too rusty/thin to get a weld on even w the smallest rods/lightest setting I could get to arc. I ran some tacks and basically temporarily patched over top. I plan on having a completely new axle housing with my front axle build sometime next summer or fall. So this is temp. The weight bearing part of the pad was good, but the edges of the middle section which helps retain the spring had a few holes. I knocked the junk out, cleaned it up as well as I could, and patched.

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Ryan - A good eye, a light foot, and a smart rig.Bolt-ons are boringAMERICAN JEEPER